Released
This story is part of the Dimensional Jumping series, please be sure to read part one and two before continuing... 'Released' by Nico Wonderdust So there I was, sitting in the police interrogation room, accused of "Vehicular Homicide", I had requested a pen and a piece of paper, which I had ripped into two pieces and wrote on each of them, "I did not kill my mother" on one piece of paper, "I did kill my mother" on the other piece, I tried explaining to Detective Jenkins that we're living in two separate realities, an obvious blag on my part, and he didn't understand what I was trying to say to him, which is when I requested that he brings me two glasses, one full of water, the other empty. The Detective paused the interview tape and left the room, I could hear him laughing with one of his colleagues just outside the door, "We'll see who's laughing in a minute," I thought to myself, After a short wait, he brought me the two glasses I had asked for, "Thank you, Detective," I said, "This better be good" he responded, "Oh, it will be" The Detective continued the recorded, "Interview commenced at 7:51pm, Mr Clark is going to demonstrate his previous statement, go ahead Mr Clark" "Thank you Detective" I replied, "As I said, we are both living in two separate versions of reality, both of which are in the process of colliding into each other, which will have devastating effects on the universe and life as we know it, you can see there are two glasses on the table, one contains water, the other does not, these represent each version of reality in which we both live, you are currently living here, in the glass full of water" I used the condensation on the full glass to attach the piece of paper which says "I killed my mother", then did the same with the second piece of paper before transferring it to the empty glass. "And I am in this version of reality, now as you can see one glass is full, the water represents the facts, but if I pour the water into this glass..." I said, transferring the water into the glass labelled "I did not kill my mum", "This is where the facts really are, Detective, now notice something, focus on the two glasses and what just happened there, " I said "I will not be made a fool of Mr Clark" the Detective shout, "No, no, not at all Detective, just focus for a second" And with that, we both focused on the water and the two glasses, after about a minute or two I picked up the glass, "You see Detective, I really did not kill my mother," I said, drinking the water "Mr Clark! You are making a mockery of me and of this whole interview!" the Detective shouted, jumping up from his seat , "Get up, now!" The Detective stopped the interview tape immediately, grabbed me by the arm and marched me back to my holding cell, "See you again soon Dick... Jenkins" I said, saluting the Detective and smirking smugly. I lay down in my cold, miserable cell, on the pathetic excuse for a mattress and tried to get some sleep, a task I found quite difficult given where I was, hearing screams from the cell next door, "Let me out! Let me out! I'm being flooded in!" the man in the cell would shout, "Simon?! Is that you? Why've you got your dog in here?" he continued, clearly on some kind of drug, Eventually, I did manage to fall asleep after God knows how long, just to be woken by the sound of that shouting again, "Let me out, I haven't don... Simon, shut up I'm trying to speak to the copper" "Dude, you shut up, some people are trying to sleep!" I shouted back at him "It's not a Pitbull, it's a Staffy" the man just continued, After a good 20 or so minutes, the shouting had stopped and I finally managed to get myself some shut-eye, only to be woken up the next day to the sound of a bolted door being unlocked, I was still in that cell, "Mr Clark, how's the head?" the Officer asked, "Err, yeah, fine..." I said in response, slightly puzzled "You're free to go, just go to the front desk and collect your things, have the officer at the desk sign you out and head through the door to your right" he instructed, "I'm free to go?" I thought to myself, heading down the corridor, "It worked?... It worked!", As I walked down the corridor I could hear raised voices coming from one of the interview rooms, "Sergent, this kid ran his own mother over and you're just letting him walk?" said one of the voices, I assumed was the Detective, "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, there is no record of a hit and run occurring at all in the past 6 months" the Sergent replied, "Sergent, Sir... I brought him in myself last night" I quickly walked past the room from where the voices were coming, and I couldn't help but wonder, "Are they talking about me? How does he remember?" I took my last few steps up to the front desk and was greeted with, "Good morning Mr Clark, how's the head today?" "Erm, yeah, it's fine" I replied, "Why do you ask?" "Don't you remember why we brought you in?" the Officer asked "Drunk and disorderly, Mr Clark, and what a staggering reading it was, you're lucky to be alive" "Why's that then?" "Well, in all my years on the force I've never seen anyone blow about 0.21 on a breathalyzer, but you blew 0.46, anything over 0.45 would kill most people" "Wow, lucky me," I said sarcastically, "Can I have my stuff now?" "Here you go, Mr Clark," he said, handing me a clear bag containing my belongings "Thanks, have a nice day cont...stable," I said, as I walked towards the exit. Walking through the big double doors with frosted glass panels I was greeted by my best friend, Ian Sinndem. I have known Ian for as long as I can remember, shortly after my mother died, in my dimension, he was the first best friend I ever had. It was the second week of primary school, since my father was never around I moved in with my nanna, who kept me home from school for the first week and during the second week, Ian was the one person who stood by me. After the death of my mother I became somewhat shy and being the quiet kid, this left me open to all kinds of bullying, they said I was "a weirdo" and "a freak, but not Ian. Eventually, we went on to attend the same high school and college, and he's always lived within 10 minutes of me, my whole life, he has always been there for me and I couldn't thank him enough. "What the... How did you know I was here?" I asked, somewhat confused, "Good night last night?" Ian laughed, "Come on, let's get you home, I think I should drive" "And what is that supposed to mean?!" I exclaimed "Whoa there buddy, wind your neck in, I'm no snot-nosed cashier" "You what?" "I said did you forget to put your tampon in, nevermind, I was joking, let's go" "I'm sure that's not what he said," I thought to myself as we left the police station. I couldn't believe my luck, I' only spent one night in the cells but it felt l5-year sentence in solitary, and I was walking out two days after killing my mother, well, sort of, in this dimension I hadn't killed my mother, "Oh crap, my mum!" I thought, "Just because I didn't kill her, that doesn't mean she's alive, I need to ask Ian" Knowing it wasn't something I could just come out with, I thought for a while how I could ask, I needed to know if my mother was alive in this dimension or was this all for nothing. We walked for a short while and arrived at a car park at the opposite end of the street, "Here we are, right, get in, " Ian said, unlocking the car door, As we began driving I couldn't help but wonder if my mum was alive in this dimension, and I couldn't work out the best way of asking Ian, he was never going to believe me, even if it was the truth, hell, if I was in his position I would think he was insane, "Something on your mind?" Ian asked, "No, no, I was just thinking about last night, how drunk I must have been" I laughed, "Drunk? You weren't drunk, Alex" he proclaimed, "You know what happened..." "What do you mean?" "You know exactly what I mean" "Listen, stop being so God damn cryptic and cut to the bloody chase!" I shouted, "I don't have time for your shit!" "Well, it seems to me, you have all the time in the world, and when things don't go to plan, you have a way of making it right" "Wait, what?" I asked, with a feeling of uneasiness, "What are you talking about, Ian?" "Dimensional jumping" "You know about that?" "Of course I know, we've been best friends since primary school, I know everything about you" "But how? I mean, I never told you" "Oh but you did, in a manner of speaking, you see, you're the 3rd Alex to come through this dimension, and that's not including the Alex from here, you're all on your own little journies, you're all looking for... Something. My Alex told me everything before he jumped, he was ill and was trying to beat it, the second Alex was searching for him mum, the third Alex wanted to quit smoking, and now you..." "There's more than one of me? I smoked? I was ill? Am I these versions of myself?" my mind began to race, It seems that every time I jump to a new dimension my mind is overrun with questions, I felt like I was I was losing my grip on reality, "Focus Alex!" I screamed, "We... I... Have to find mum!" "Whoa, calm down buddy, take a deep breath," Ian said calmly "Shut the hell up, take me home, now... Drive!" Ian drove the rest of the way in silence and pulled up in my front drive, I swiftly exited the car and stood at the front door, "Lock the car," Ian said, getting out of the passenger side "But you've got the... Why did you climb over and get out of the passenger side?" "Lock the car and let us in the house, it's cold out here" he replied, forcing the keys into my hand After getting inside I began to ask Ian just how much he knew about my situation and if he knew anything of my mum's whereabouts, but he had no idea where my mum was. He was aware that I jump dimensions and why I was doing it, he knew everything from my previous jump and how I really came to be in the police station, he said that the Alex who was searching for his mum had been through exactly the same stuff, and due to my little outburst in the car, he figured I was the same Alex, "No, I've not told anybody else yet, in fact, I'm still quite shocked you know" "Well, not technically true, how did you get out of the cells?" "Well, yeah, the Detective, but I mean, I've not told anybody close to me, anyway, I'm going to make a coffee, do you want one?" I asked, heading to the kitchen, "Too early for a beer then?" he jokingly asked "Just a bit mate, it's only one in the afternoon, do you want a coffee?" I called "Yeah, go on then" I put the kettle on and set two cups on the side, putting the coffee and milk into both, "Sugar?" I shouted through to Ian, There was no reply, just the sound of the kettle heating up and slowly coming to a boil, "Do you want sugar?!" I shouted again, but still, no reply I started walking towards the living room, wondering what it was that Ian was so captivated with that he could answer a simple yes or no question, "Ian you ignorant little fu..." When I walk into the living room Ian was no longer there, he had to walk past the kitchen to leave the house and I didn't hear him walking upstairs to the bathroom, I couldn't hear a single thing, not even the sound of the kettle, I walked back into the kitchen to find that the cups I had set out on the side were no longer there and the kettle was almost empty and cold to the touch, "What the hell is going on?" I thought to myself, I called out to Ian but got no reply, I figured it must be something to do with the jump, of course, that was it, that's the only thing that makes sense. I promptly filled the kettle and turned it on, not leaving the kitchen until I had made my coffee. Walking into the living room, coffee in hand, I place my cup down by my computer and turned it on, lit my log fire and turned on the TV before sitting down to surf the web. First, I headed over to Facebook to message Ian to find out why he just bailed on me, but when looked on my friends list, he wasn't there, so I typed his name into the search bar, but nothing... I took out my phone and looked through my contacts and again, Ian wasn't there, "That's strange, why do I have Ian on Facebook or in my phone?" I wondered, But I concluded that I must have jumped to a dimension where Ian isn't on Facebook yet, he was always behind on the latest fad in my dimension, maybe he was the same here. I figured I'd see him at some point soon anyway, so I'd just have to convince him to sign up when I do. After coming to this conclusion I decided that I'd head over to Reddit and see if there were any new posts on the subreddits I was subscribed to, but my plans soon changed when I got onto the site, I tried signing in a number of times but it said my password was incorrect, my password shouldn't be incorrect, it's always been the same as my Facebook password, I went to my email to try to reset my password but every time I submit my new password, it said the rest link had expired. After about 20 minutes of playing around and trying to get into my account I decided to just make a new account, after doing this I went on to the /r/DimensionalJumping subreddit to find out if anybody else has had the problems that I've been having, it turns out this isn't a common thing, nobody seemed to have experienced this after a jump. After sitting there and thinking about it, I started to think that maybe somebody who knew me decided it would be fun to mess with me. I wasn't even sure that I was jumping dimensions anymore, on one hand, I was arrested for killing a woman I know was my mother, I definitely burned my car but now it's on my drive, and I don't actually have a sister, but on the other hand, what if somebody set this subreddit up and is playing and elaborate prank? People don't just get away with running someone over, and the Reddit banner on /r/DimensionalJuming hasn't changed, 702, just as it always was... I started going over all of the possible explanations in my head, maybe it was Ian, that's how the cups were moved, then he left, maybe my account had been hacked, maybe Ian knows someone on the police force and set it all up, found me a fake sister, and a woman who looks like my mother, Ian was always clever, very clever, he must have something to do with this. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I went back on to Reddit to ask for tips on finding proof that I was jumping, but decided against it, if this was a hoax, Ian would surely see my posts. That's when I noticed my inbox button, it had changed color... Green, usually it's orange, and I'm pretty sure Ian can't change the code on the actual website. When I opened the message I was both shocked and horrified, somebody had replied to my post with one single word, "iansinndem" I clicked on the user's name and checked out their overview, they have been a Redditor for over 5 years and this was the only thing they had ever posted, "Why have they just posted Ian's name?" I muttered, This made even less sense than my cups mysteriously disappearing along with Ian. I've only been on Reddit myself for a short while, there's no way THIS has anything to do with Ian! I tried to write back to the user, I wrote out a long message saying if this was Ian, it wasn't cool, and asking, if it wasn't him, why did they write his name, how they knew him and what he had to do with my current situation, but the minute I clicked send I got the "that user doesn't exist" error, and when I went back to my original post, the message had disappeared... I refreshed the page a couple of times, maybe it was just a glitch, or maybe Reddit was in the process of updating the site, that would explain why my inbox button was a different colour to what I was used to, but no matter how much I clicked refresh, the message had gone. I clicked refresh one more time, that's when my computer shut itself down, all the electronics in my house turned off and I was engulfed in complete darkness. "Alex!" A woman's voice echoed, "Wake up!" I didn't know what the hell was going on and I'm not ashamed to admit that, at that minute in time I was completely and utterly terrified, the air around me began to get cold, and it felt like I was being watched by a thousand pair of eyes, "Alex..." the voice echoed again, as icy fingers gripped my arm in the darkness, "Who's there?!" I screamed, jumping back, "What the hell are you?! What's going on?!" I began to get cold, really, really cold, and it suddenly felt like I was no longer within my own body, but just a few feet behind, as if I was watching myself haphazardly fumbling around in the darkness when my phone began to echo through the endless void, I reached into my pocket to pull my phone out but when I did, there was no light coming from it, it was ringing but there was no light, I started pressing buttons at random, anything to make the ringing stop, and then it did... "He... Hello?" I said, holding the phone up to my ear, "Alex, wake up" I could hear the distorted voice of the woman, "Alex..." "Who are you?" I asked, but got no reply Then I heard a familiar electronic screeching, just like I did when I tried to call the emergency services, and at that moment, I heard Ian's voice, "Yeah please mate," he said, The darkness faded, the warmth of the air came rushing back, and suddenly I was back in my staring down at two cups, "What's that?" I called "I said yes please, I'll have two sugars" "What the hell just happened?" I wondered, "Did I imagine everything that just went on?" I went through to the living room, to where Ian's voice was coming from, but again, he wasn't there. " Now where've you gone?" I called out, heading back to the kitchen As I walked through the door I noticed the clock read 6:32pm, the sun outside my window was setting and my house was completely silent. At least this time, my cups hadn't disappeared. Given the time, I decided against coffee, and opted for a chamomile tea instead, I'd had a rough, and somewhat confusing day, and I just wanted to get an early night and work out what went on when I woke up and could think straight. Taking my chamomile tea upstairs, I sunk into my warm, comfy bed and lay there sipping my herbal nightcap, letting it's calming effects sooth me and drift off into a pleasant night's sleep. After finishing my tea, and placing my cup on my bedside table, I rested my head on my pillow, closed my eyes, and within ten minutes, fell asleep. I was ripped back into a waking state some time later by the sound of somebody walking around in my house, I jumped out of bed and landed face-first on the floor, the house went silent while I lay there, after a couple of seconds the sound of somebody walking around returned, I got up and started frantically searching for something to defend myself. In my dimension, I usually keep a baseball bat by my bed, but here, nothing. "I could use the empty cup," I thought to myself, "But what good will that do?" There were various items I could use, but nothing I could use effectively should my life depend on it, or so I thought. That's when I notice the empty beer bottle which must have rolled under my bed. After grabbing the bottle I quietly left the sanctuary of my bedroom, and slowly made my way downstairs. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I could hear a rustling coming from my living room. "Shit, shit, shit!" My mind race, "I'm gonna die... I am going... To die!" I took a deep breath to help calm my nerves, "Right, Alex, calm yourself, it's you, or them!" I muttered silently, He must have heard me, whoever it was in my living room started heading towards the door, I took another deep breath and smashed the empty bottle in the face of my intruder as he began to exit the living room, I ran at him, punching him in the jaw with incredibly inhuman force as he fell to the floor, "Don't move!" I screamed, "Don't say a fucking word, you've broken into the wrong house buddy!" Peering through the darkness I could see the silhouette of the person laying there on the floor, they began to move, out of fear for my life I kicked him in the face, "Stay down!" I shouted, But he didn't listen, again he tried to get up, mumbling, I took the broken neck of the bottle and forced it into the neck of my intruder, "I said stay... Down!" I screamed, walking over to the light switch, I turned on the light and was met by the most horrific sight imaginable, blood covered my floor, the arm of my sofa and was pouring out of the neck of the man who had broken into my house, only, this wasn't a man at all, this was a woman. I felt a lump in my throat, and my stomach was doing somersaults, the whole room started spinning as I fell to my knees, "What have I done?" I thought to myself, Looking over the room, I realised what had just transpired, there were birthday banners hanging around my living room and a small present bag sat on my sofa, now covered in the blood of the woman laying on the floor, collecting myself, a single word left my mouth, the only word I could say at his moment in time, "Mum?" Part One | Part Two | Part Three Category:Original Category:Nico Wonderdust Category:Reality Category:Series